Six Books I Got for Christmas

Over the years, the nature of the gifts I got for Christmas has changed quite a lot. What used to be Lego Star Wars, are now books. And while my Lego Star Wars collection has been reduced to one lonely, damaged and dusty Yoda Star Fighter, the book collection is rising exponentially. It’s unfortunate that I can’t bring all the books back home with me to Maastricht, but here are six new books that will make the trip and that I want to get to as soon as possible.

Numbers Don’t Lie: 71 Things You Need to Know About the World by Vaclav Smil

Vaclav Smil is one of Bill Gates’ favorite authors. Usually, he writes about the history of oil or the concept of power density – not my everyday topics. But his newest book uncovers weird, quirky, and interesting facts and statistics about our planet. While the stats are fascinating, it’s their interpretation and meaning that give them relevance – a book with similarities to one of my all-time favorites: Factfulness by Hans Rosling.

Verbrechen by Ferdinand von Schirach

I fell in love with Ferdinand von Schirach’s The Collini Case so much, that I had to complete the collection of his works on Christmas. I am in no doubt that Verbrechen (English title Crime and Guilt) and Schirach’s other publications will be as good as the first one I read.

The Miracle Morning: The Not-So-Obvious Secret Guaranteed to Transform Your Life: Before 8AM by Hal Elrod

While I do believe that I have enough self-development books in my shelf already, this one is different. It is very interesting how the author, Hal Elrod, built an entire network, focus groups, events, and literature concept around the idea of the Miracle Morning. A lot can be learned from Elrod’s approach – hopefully it will hold some lessons that are applicable to The Reading Dilemma. My mum loves this book, and I am eager to find out why.

Energy: A Beginners Guide by Vaclav Smil

There it is. One of Vaclav Smil’s more classic and common publications. While I did not get this book for Christmas, I started it during Christmas. Progress has been slow, however. Even a beginner guide for energy isn’t so easy to understand. But the topic is highly relevant, and I want to give it a try.

The Referral Engine by John Jantsch

This book too – much like Miracle Morning – hopefully provides valuable insights on how to grow The Reading Dilemma. It was highly praised and recommended by Chris Guillebeau in his book $100 Startups.

Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado Pérez

To be honest, I did not get this book for Christmas. I gifted it to my sister after we had an interesting discussion about feminism and gender equality. Usually, she doesn’t read that many books, so I was even more impressed when she actively pushed the family to read on the day after Christmas. We sat next to each other on the couch for a couple hours and read. I wanted to stop at some point because I got tired and needed a break. But my sister was still reading – so I had to keep reading too. All in all, a good present and one that I am highly anticipating reading myself.

Challenge Yourself

Hopefully, Santa gifted you as interesting books as the six above. If not, you will surely enjoy one of them. They cover a broad range of topics and I encourage you to try out something different – don’t stick with your everyday topics. Challenge your mind. Amazing things can happen.

I am already excited about the books for next year’s Christmas. But until then, I have a lot to get to and so do you…

Enjoy!

I have provided links to all on books on goodreads. If you don’t know the platform, be sure to check my post about it and join the TRD group. See you there!